Stock Market Thread

[ScottyB]

Instagram is worth 800 AOL patents

i literally can't process this. its an app that puts a filter on your shitty cell phone pictures, right? what am i missing?

[Mike]

a shitty filter on your shitty cell phone pics... meaning you get extra shitty photos out of it.

what does this value a hipster at?

[Evan]

Instagram is worth 800 AOL patents

i literally can't process this. its an app that puts a filter on your shitty cell phone pictures, right? what am i missing?

I was equally confounded. I hadnt even heard of the app before last month.

Apparently its very popular as a 'social' pic sharing service. :dunno:

so is....the company that paid one billion dollars for them

[JPolen01]

I just started using Instagram since it was just released for Android last week. As a non hipster, here is my take. Yes it's an app that allows you to choose through numerous filters for your pictures. You then upload it to Instagram and have the option to upload it to multiple social media sites including Facebook. As Evan said, it's just another social sharing service. So far I have less than 30 followers and I'm following around 30 people. I don't see it as Facebook where you have tons of friends and you don't even know some of them. It's just a way to see what your friends are up to in picture form verse reading a status and what not. You still have the ability to comment so there is interaction, but it's limited because you have no wall or anything like that. The company is growing insanely fast. Started with 4 people a year or so ago now its up to around 12 and they just sold for a billion bucks. They must be doing something right, right?

[HAULN-SS]

The most amazing part is that they have no way to monetize it presently, from what I understand?

[JPolen01]

The most amazing part is that they have no way to monetize it presently, from what I understand?

It's not that there is no way, it's that they don't want to start charging for the app yet. The CEO, in the article i posted a few posts back, talks about the idea to charge for more filters or a pro version later down the road.

[HAULN-SS]

So that's when the user base will grow enough to justify 1B? The reason they only need like 10 people working for them is because image filtering in that kind of application is easy. Remind me to make a new instagram clone when they start charging.

[ScottyB]

all i know is that i'm clearly in the wrong business.

also, 1 billion? isn't that like...Facebook's yearly catering budget? those guys are super loaded.

[JPolen01]

all i know is that i'm clearly in the wrong business.

also, 1 billion? isn't that like...Facebook's yearly catering budget? those guys are super loaded.

Yeah there was speculation they were sitting on around 3.5B :finger:

[CaptainHenreh]

So that's when the user base will grow enough to justify 1B? The reason they only need like 10 people working for them is because image filtering in that kind of application is easy. Remind me to make a new instagram clone when they start charging.

It's worth 1B...to facebook. It's a social media sharing system, and I don't know if you noticed or not, but facebook is kind of, well, you know, into that kind of thing. I think they paid about 100x too much, but facebook does not intend to "monetize it" by charging for the app. And your image filtering "instagram clone" isn't gonna do shit...there was a half dozen (better!) ones before the android launch last week, but once you get a brand anchored in the minds of a VERY brand-oriented user base, I don't need to tell you there's a lot you can do with that.

[JPolen01]

but once you get a brand anchored in the minds of a VERY brand-oriented user base, I don't need to tell you there's a lot you can do with that.

This. It all started because Instagram launched only to the iPhone at first. You had all of those fanbois run to Instagram because it was elite to them. They are the ones who popularized it because the people on Android couldn't have it. Now that both OS have it I think it lost some of its cool factor. I don't think it was worth 1B either, but I guess we'll see where it goes.

[TorinoCobra070]

So I had no idea what instagram was until some people were talking about it at work. I just downloaded it and tried it. Pretty nice simple little program, but meh. Unless you're a sorority girl using it to make your duck face pictures black and white before you upload to Facebook, I don't see what is that great.

As far as monetizing the program, Facebook wouldn't have to charge for it. Here is what i see happening:

upload pic ---> get an ad on your phone. Similar to the free versions of Zynga games.

[Steve85]

So I had no idea what instagram was until some people were talking about it at work. I just downloaded it and tried it. Pretty nice simple little program, but meh. Unless you're a sorority girl using it to make your duck face pictures black and white before you upload to Facebook, I don't see what is that great.

As far as monetizing the program, Facebook wouldn't have to charge for it. Here is what i see happening:

upload pic ---> get an ad on your phone. Similar to the free versions of Zynga games.

Seriously... :lol:

My girls aren't in a sorority, but if would have just bought stock in the companies that made the things that were "all I want for birthday/Christmas is..." I'd be doing exceptionally well.

[Evan]

shit couldnt they have bought twitter for 1B?

I mean damn. its not _that_ big of a social media network

[Apoc]

Facebook bought the engineers and the ability to hook into OTHER social networks like Twitter.

The product itself is inconsequential.

[WRXtranceformed]

I think it's just more of a market share move at this point...because they can. Definitely paid too much but, they have made some pretty sound strategic decisions so far so who knows what the ultimate goal is. Monopoly in the social media space?

[Evan]

Facebook bought the engineers and the ability to hook into OTHER social networks like Twitter.

The product itself is inconsequential.

12 employees (not all of which are engineers) for 1 Bil doesnt make much sense.
Twitter has a ridiculously easy to use API, so integrating with twitter is simple and cant be the reason either.

the only thing that i can think of that makes a sliver of sense is that facebook is terrified of getting left behind by the next big social network, done to them what they did to myspace (and myspace did to friendster) so they use their cash to buy whatever company they see as a threat.
doesnt seem like instragram would be taken as a threat..but who knows

[ScottyB]

doesnt seem like instragram would be taken as a threat..but who knows

i percieved it this way as well. instagram looks to operate on the same premise as facebook - sharing parts of your daily life with a circle of friends, just through photos instead of text/links. seems like they wanted to choke out a threat and probably buy up any intellectual assets (for lack of a better word)...

[JPolen01]

They needed something to spend their money on. They were sitting on way to much cash to do nothing with it. They overpaid, but I don't think that really matters to them because they now have the next big thing. Once it was released to Android it took off like wild fire and Facebook figured oh hell why not.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

[Apoc]

Twitter has a ridiculously easy to use API, so integrating with twitter is simple and cant be the reason either.

the only thing that i can think of that makes a sliver of sense is that facebook is terrified of getting left behind by the next big social network, done to them what they did to myspace (and myspace did to friendster) so they use their cash to buy whatever company they see as a threat.
doesnt seem like instragram would be taken as a threat..but who knows

I seem to remember some bickering between Twitter and Facebook early on that lead to Twitter pretty much telling Facebook to go eff themselves. I may be misremembering.

I'm guessing it's a lot like what they did with the Facebook comments. They want to move beyond the walls of the Fb site to, you know, NOT end up like AOL... and owning commenting on thousands of websites was the first step. Instagram, and it's user base, is a way to move their reach into other spaces in much the same way.